Stalking Laws

In 2001, I moved to a new City...BIG MISTAKE. I bought a cheap house, next door to a male front line emergency worker. He began by flirting with me, but as I rejected his advances over and over, he turned extremely nasty. He derides me if I try to leave my house, has sent sexually explicit and death threat letters over my side wall, Defecates and urinates on my doorstep, causes malicious damage to my property with his vehicle…plus much more that I can’t write here. All in all, I’ve been harassed, intimidated and frightened for the last 11 years by him, and even though I have many pieces of video footage of my neighbour doing these things, the Police claimed that they had him investigated, but could find no strong evidence to warrant an arrest.

This 'Creature' is so invested in terrorising me that he monitors everything I do, I have taken videos and recordings of the stuff he does and says, one that shows him hanging over the back wall saying 'I will never let you leave darling, I know you love me'. I have recorded these events in journals and kept the names of attending officers and event No’s.

The Police claim they misplaced the first 3 original copies of these nasty letters that I handed over to them. They asked me for the originals of all 40+ letters, and the 20 others that I question being attributed to my neighbour. I refused to give the originals, and the officers became annoyed that I was only willing to give them copies saying ‘How do you expect us to do our job if your not willing to give us the evidence? ‘We can’t be expected to do much with just copies, we need the originals’. As this is the most damning evidence I have against him, I will not let them out of my possession.

I have also been receiving numerous lurid text messages from 2 mobile numbers and 1 private number. Copies of these texts have been given to police together with the 2 known numbers. The investigating officer claimed that they had been unsuccessful in contacting the owner of the phones. The texts ceased for a while but then started up again, so I reported to the police a second and third time, but they refuse to act on any of my complaints. I am now being woken by calls from a private number almost every morning at 3-4am, unfortunately I need to keep my phone on at night as I have a very ill friend that only has me for support. I have reported this intrusion to the Police, but again they refuse to act.

I have since been told by my neighbour that the investigating officers are 'Drinking Buddies’ of his, so I have no recourse at all..I don’t call the Police anymore, as there is no point. So I just have to put up with his invasive, intimidating behaviour everyday, I rarely leave my house, as I can’t bear to have him confront me.

I can assure you that his stalking and victimization of me is very real, I am not paranoid just very frightened. Can someone help me please? I have no one to turn to, I feel like I'm living in prison. I am very well educated, and have very specialised technical and artistic skills.....But I have virtually avoided living for the last 10 years. I can’t keep appointments, can’t work, can’t do anything outside of my home unless accompanied by someone I trust. I want to try to stand up to my creepy neighbour, and take back my life. I hope that posting here brings the support I’m looking for, so I’m posting this thread in the hope that I can get some feedback on the laws of ‘Stalking’, what constitutes stalking, and the possible legal avenues I can take to stop this insidious intrusion.

The Police say that there is no way that I can prove anything and that I'm the one breaking the law by making 'vexatious' complaints, putting the reputation of a respected emergency worker into question. I’ve been warned to be very careful and in their words ‘Watch my step’, as filming & recording him is also a breach of his privacy. They say he has every right to sue me. I feel like I'm Alice living in an even darker version of Wonderland.

I’m sorry this post is so very long, but what am I going to do? I truly believe that the Police are protecting this monster. I have even thought of just leaving, letting the bank take my house. I write this in the hope that someone will be able to give me some legal advice on where I go from here.

Because of this continued harassment and reaction from the authorities, I’ve lost all self-esteem and confidence; I can’t see my way ahead and am barely holding it together. What do you do when even the Police can’t be trusted to do their job?

LawTap Verified Lawyer

A few avenues i think you may have and may work - one - go to your local court - in Victoria (i dont know what state you are in) it is the Magistrates Court. And ask for information on how to apply for an intervention order, which you can sometimes apply for (at least in Victoria) without the involvement of the police. The courts have as one of their functions the supervision of arms of government and that is what the police are. I do not doubt what you say, but if that is the type of conduct the police do, then it is unacceptable - for example, a copy and a certified copy, should be sufficient as evidence, generally speaking. Though you could give them the originals and keep copies of the originals, yourself.

Two - contact the police ethical standards department or similar body in your state.

I didn't mention in my post that I have already been before a magistrate regarding the possibility of a Personal Violence Order against this person. As he is my neighbour, the magistrate recommended that both parties sign letters of 'Undertakings' rather than PVO. All grievances that I stipulated in my letter of Undertakings have been breeched over & over by this person since the court appearance 2 years ago, and Police claim that they are unable to enforce such a document. However, I will take your advice on seeking some counsel from a magistrate again, and see where that leads me.

If your application for a PVO was in NSW and you agreed to undertakings, then the undertakings are unenforceable. This may be the same in other states. However, if your neighbour breached the undertakings, and you have evidence of these breaches, you may consider reapplying for a PVO. In many cases where undertakings have been breached a court can take such breaches into consideration in any subsequent application for a PVO. Basically, the argument goes that if undertakings are breached a court is more likely to make a PVO the next time an application is made.

Indeed...have been recording everything in journals for years, including times, dates, abusive tirades, threats. Apart from these journals, I have 2 large garbage bags full of countless pieces of garbage thrown by him over my wall (including: Junk mail, discarded hand written abusive notes and letters to other people, numerous empty medication boxes prescribed to him, beer bottles, used tissues. take out dinner boxes, rotten fruit....etc. Also many pieces of video footage and numerous voice recordings. However, I have stopped recording his verbal abuse, as I was told that it was illegal. So I write detailed accounts of what he says in my journal.

I guess you must be wondering why I don't hold this person to account by aggressively pursuing a PVO against him. I have been warned several times that he has the weight of the Dept he works for behind him, and that if I lost my request for an order... he could sue me. As I am not working, and barely have enough to pay my mortgage, I can't see things turning out well for me financially if he were to do this.